New Dean of Women's Ministry

The Revd Helen Dawes, Rector of Shaftesbury, has been announced as the new Dean of Women’s Ministry for the Diocese of Salisbury by the Rt Revd Nicholas Holtam, Diocesan Bishop.

Helen came to Shaftesbury last year. Before that, she spent six years as a social and political affairs advisor to two successive Archbishops of Canterbury, following jobs as a parish priest in Hertfordshire and Cambridge. Before ordination, she worked as a business consultant.

The Rt Revd Nicholas Holtam, Bishop of Salisbury said, “Helen has shown ability and energy throughout her ministry and I am delighted to appoint her as the Diocese’s Dean of Women’s Ministry. Salisbury has long been one of the Diocese’s with the strongest support for the full and equal ministry of women and men in the Church, and that continues.

“We were the first Diocese in the country where the Bishop’s Staff consists of equal numbers of women and men but there is more to do, especially in encouraging younger women into ministry and to women taking posts of responsibility as incumbents and Team Rectors.”

The Revd Helen Dawes said, “I am surprised and pleased to be offered this role.

“I am looking forward to taking further steps to ensuring that, in the long term, we no longer need a Dean of Women’s Ministry! The recognition that women’s ministry is as integral to the ministry of the Church as men’s ministry has grown in my fourteen years in holy orders.

“One of my hopes is that women and men can continue to work together to make sure God can call whomever He needs to His service.”